Cooking ranges having ventilated surface units are well known in the prior art. One such range, with interchangeable surface elements, is discloded in, among others, Cerola U.S. Pat. No. 3,797,375. Radiant mode operated ovens, having gravity or forced ventilation, are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,862,095, 3,089,479 and 3,587,555. Convected, or forced circulation ovens are also well known, (U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,780,721, 3,838,760 and 3,884,213), these having the advantage of more efficient and rapid heat transfer to the food in preparation. This results in substantial energy saving and reduces meat shrinkage. To the present convected ovens have been used in institutional and commercial baking and have not been found in domestic ranges because of the long-established commitment to radiant type ovens and the design difficulty and customer resistance inherent in a change from the long-established raidant oven mode of operation. Since shorter cooking times are required for convection oven preparation of food, the required extrapolation from existing recipes (using radiant oven time requirements) has been a formidable barrier to widespread sales of convection type ovens to the domestic market.
The concept of the present invention envisages an oven which, because of the fan location and the location of its discharge apertures, can be operated, if desired, in the conventional radiant mode or in the convected mode and utilizes the conventional lower oven baking element and the conventional, upper broil element without requiring the addition of special heating elements for the convection mode operation of the oven.